Ukrainian Easter in Malmö, Sweden

April 25, 2023

Ukrainian Easter in Malmö, Sweden

Ukrainians love Easter and, like other Christians, usually wait for it to spend time outdoors with family and friends. I was born in the southern part of Ukraine, where people are not very religious, and Easter is more about family gatherings, festive food, and outdoor activities rather than going to church. Of course, many of them attend church services on that day and bring the traditional baskets full of beautifully made Easter bread and eggs, which symbolize prosperity and health for the next year and need to be blessed.

Our Ukrainian community in Malmö continues these traditions and makes picnics in the park every year.

We started with some decorations hanging the Ukrainian flag and painted Easter eggs (pysanky) on the trees. These lovely eggs were made by our artist Rita, who has her own Riorita art studio in Malmö and teaches our kids how to create different kinds of artworks related to Ukrainian culture.

We were all prepared 😊 Some of us brought delicious Easter bread (paska), and I made the poppy seed roll I shared the recipe in my blog. Ukrainians cook so well!.. Mmm... That reach dough full of flavor with the softest, tender texture literally melts in your mouth. I plan to share my paska recipe someday, but it needs to be slightly polished. It is the most challenging kind of dough. We used to evaluate a cook's skills by their abilities to bake paska. Maybe, I'm exaggerating, but it is very close to the truth😉 The traditional paska from the south of Ukraine has a crispy egg white frosting on top - kids like this part the most! Northern and Western Ukrainian paska has different toppings without frosting but with some intricate details made of the same dough.

We accompanied our Ukrainian pastry with the traditional Swedish Easter drink Påskmust because... why not? It is delicious!

Of course, there were grilled sausages and hot dogs. For a good-smelling vibe, you know. In Ukraine, we usually make shashliks (grilled meat), but grilled sausages (grilkorv) are more common in Sweden.

There were a lot of games and fun activities for parents and kids prepared by organizers, who are teachers in Ukrainian school in Sweden. Sports, games, quests, chocolate egg hunting, and the most exciting - making traditional Ukrainian Easter eggs (pysanky). The egg painting technique requires patience and attention, but both children and parents have shown great results. They used hot wax and painted different whimsical patterns, plants or dots.

So scroll down if you want to see some photos from our Easter celebration in Malmö. Hope you've learned something new about our traditions. See you soon!